Alaska Day 3 - Tracy Arm

After breakfast the ship departed for Tracy Arm.  Tracy Arm is a very scenic fjord (30 miles long) with steep cliffs, many water falls, icebergs and glaciers (really neat).  The fjord was cut by a moving glacier.  At the center the fjord is about 1000 ft. deep.  Here are some pictures of the fjord and some of the water falls.  Note - some of the water falls carry a lot of water (which is COLD).

 

 

 At the end of the Tracy Arm is the South Sawyer Glacier.  Here are some pictures of the Sawyer Glacier.  Note: At this point, we're wearing all the cold weather gear we brought.  The wind off the glaciers was very cold.

 

 

Yes, the ice is indeed BLUE.  This is due to the highly compressed nature of the ice.

The Sawyer Glacier is actively calving (i.e. large chunks of ice are falling from the face into the fjord).  As the ice chunks fall off, they make a wave (small or large depending upon the size of the ice chunk) and a loud sound like thunder.

 

The black dots on the ice in front of the glacier are harbor seals.  Resting on the ice is a relatively safe spot for them.

We also saw several killer whales as we navigated through the fjord.

We were excited to see a black bear looking for something to eat.

We thought this rock was especially neat.  Do you see Jabba the Hut in the design?

Tracy Arm was beautiful - now on to Skagway.